*Official* English Football Season 2009-2010

[The Sean]

Sky Sports reporting that Sir Bobby Robson passed away early this morning.

RIP Sir Bobby - one of football's true gents.

 

[Uppercut]

Avoiding the question - you've lost 25+ goals a season from a season when you didn't actually score that many goals - who's going to score them?

Ah, it doesn't work like that. We lost even more goals when Van Nistelrooy left and since then we've won three titles in a row.

It's just about building a good team with what you have and getting the goals from somewhere. Really we're hoping for Berbatov to start firing, if Owen contributes it'll be a bonus. The defence is still intact, and none of the other teams look especially promising either. It'll be an interesting season.

 

[GIMH]

Sky Sports reporting that Sir Bobby Robson passed away early this morning.

RIP Sir Bobby - one of football's true gents.

Saw him on TV the last week and he didn't look well. One of the game's good guys IMO. RIP Sir Bobby - the only man to ever take England to the WC semis on foreign soil.

 

[duffer]

You're mistaken. Alonso wasn't going for anything under 16-17 million because we actually weren't that desperate to sell him. He had dropped his form but he wasn't appalling. The only club at the time that was getting near that was Juventus, but they still didn't meet that evaluation. If we were desperate, we could have easily sold him and gotten Barry. Around Liverpool circles, talk of him going to Arsenal was pretty distant.

The Barry deal fell through not because we didn't have enough money, but because Rafa didn't think he was worth 16+ and so didn't meet Aston Villas demands. That's pretty much it.

Haha, so I just imagined the 2 months or so of seeing Alonso to Arsenal popping up on the news now ticker, with just about every story saying Benitez had to sell to raise funds for Barry. You know revisionism well Kazo, I'll give you that.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Sky Sports reporting that Sir Bobby Robson passed away early this morning.

RIP Sir Bobby - one of football's true gents.

Lovely bloke and a real football man. Fought the cancer with typical bravery. Vale Bobby, you'll be missed.

 

[Craig]

Sky Sports reporting that Sir Bobby Robson passed away early this morning.

RIP Sir Bobby - one of football's true gents.

RIP.

In other news, according to II Corriere dello Sport, Andrea Pirlo is has said goodbye to his team mates and is off to join Chelsea.

 

[Craig]

Lovely bloke and a real football man. Fought the cancer with typical bravery. Vale Bobby, you'll be missed.

And a lot of respect for going to manage on the Continent as well (and was succesfull as well) and was the mentor to 'The Special One'.

 

[duffer]

Sky Sports reporting that Sir Bobby Robson passed away early this morning.

RIP Sir Bobby - one of football's true gents.

Rest in peace Sir Bobby.

 

[Agent TBY]

Sir Bobby...

 

[cover drive man]

Terrible news about Sir Bobby, RIP. Think this deserves its own thread.

 

[marc71178]

Well the big hope obviously is Rooney and Berbatov

That means they need more than 50 between them just to get back to last years total - it's possible I guess, but not something I'd put money on.

 

[Craig]

Some of Sir Bobby's quotes:

In the first half he took a corner, a poor corner, which hit the first defender, and it took him 17 minutes to get back to the halfway line.
On Newcastle winger Laurent Robert in 2004

A few weeks after I lost my job, I heard that Patrick Kluivert had been upset about losing an earring in training. Under me, Patrick would not have lost it because he would not have been allowed on the pitch wearing an earring in the first place.
After being sacked as Newcastle boss (Farewell but not Goodbye autobiography, with Paul Hayward, 2005)

 

[Ikki]

Haha, so I just imagined the 2 months or so of seeing Alonso to Arsenal popping up on the news now ticker, with just about every story saying Benitez had to sell to raise funds for Barry. You know revisionism well Kazo, I'll give you that.

It depends where/what you read. If you follow what is actually said, Alonso's only real option was Juventus. Even last year, after 2 pretty mediocre years, Alonso was not valued at any less than 16 million. Rafa said then, Alonso is a good player and will not go for just any price. Alonso himself didn't make any ripples then and was quietly fighting for his place.

We wanted Barry, but to say we were desperate enough to simply sell Alonso to get him is non-sense. If we were that desperate, we would have sold Alonso for the 13-14 million Juventus were reportedly offering and would have put on 2-3 more to buy Barry. Liverpool is not Chelsea, Man City or Real Madrid, but we are not paupers. Remember, we bought Keane for 20 million. Arguing that because of 2-3 million we didn't get a man we so "desperately" wanted is inane.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

A few goals from midfield would be nice too.

Anderson and Carrick!? Good luck with that.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

RIP Sir Bobby. True great.

 

[andmark]

RIP Bobby.

 

[duffer]

It depends where/what you read. If you follow what is actually said, Alonso's only real option was Juventus. Even last year, after 2 pretty mediocre years, Alonso was not valued at any less than 16 million. Rafa said then, Alonso is a good player and will not go for just any price. Alonso himself didn't make any ripples then and was quietly fighting for his place.

His agent said plenty about him being willing to go to Arsenal. What Rafa said was:

"I don't think it will be easy [for him to leave], the value of Alonso in the market will be really high. We are really pleased with him and we don't want him to go unless we get a very good price."

Nothing about not wanting to sell him to Arsenal, nothing even implied there.

Liverpool is not Chelsea, Man City or Real Madrid, but we are not paupers. Remember, we bought Keane for 20 million.

Yes, you don't have the financial clout as the 3 clubs you mentioned yet you still went on and spent 20 million on Keane. That transfer is exactly the reason people speculated the club needed to sell to get Barry, with Villa playing hardball.

 

[duffer]

In England people think that all the problems can be sorted out by buying players. I believe the biggest target is to work hard in training, improve what we can improve and have confidence in the players we have.

Haha, we're just pocketing all that money aren't we? Either someone really screwed up the move to Ahsburton Grove or we're applying a policy which is ludicrous. Neither are great thoughts for mine.

 

[Ikki]

His agent said plenty about him being willing to go to Arsenal. What Rafa said was:

"I don't think it will be easy [for him to leave], the value of Alonso in the market will be really high. We are really pleased with him and we don't want him to go unless we get a very good price."

Nothing about not wanting to sell him to Arsenal, nothing even implied there.

All, or almost all, the talk was on Juventus. I didn't mean to imply it impossible to go to Arsenal. IIRC Parry was talking to Arsenal, it's just that it was unlikely. You saying that it was essentially because of price that he didn't go to Arsenal is not correct.

Yes, you don't have the financial clout as the 3 clubs you mentioned yet you still went on and spent 20 million on Keane. That transfer is exactly the reason people speculated the club needed to sell to get Barry, with Villa playing hardball.

We wanted Barry for the left side and for cover in the middle. Once the Barry transfer fell through, we bought Riera for 8 million. So, frankly, there was no desperation to buy Barry. He didn't come because they wanted too much. We weren't desperate to sell Xabi and it was unlikely he would have went at all. We actually rated him higher than the market did at the time. And ironically, now, the same price would not get you a phone conversation to discuss it.

 

[The Sean]

Anderson and Carrick!? Good luck with that.

Anderson scored against Boca in pre-season. There'll be no stopping him now. Really.